Metairie

Book excerpt: While New Orleans is recognized the world over for the French Quarter and Mardi Gras, Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, is not as well known. However, Metairie does have a rich history all its own. What was once described two centuries ago as "a tongue of land to lend pasturage" has become the second largest unincorporated city in the nation. The explorer La Salle noticed the river bend that is now Metairie when he descended and ascended the Mississippi River in the Spring of 1682. Almost simultaneously with the founding of New Orleans in 1718, John Law's Company of the West began granting land to European investors and to a handful of Canadians struggling to survive along the Gulf Coast. The settlers helped feed the city, provided it with critical building materials, and enhanced its value as a port. As with many colonial frontiers throughout the history of the world, missionaries stood in the vanguard of Metairie's evolution. French and Spanish friars, then European priests, and finally native clergy provided leadership and stability as a progressive community began to emerge from the marsh and swamp.